Robert Horton, Writing About Film

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About This Site

The Crop Duster has two goals. One is to organize links to my critical work: reviews written for The Herald (Everett, Washington) and Seattle Weekly; and public appearances and TV jobs. Selected past work for Film Comment and elsewhere is also linkified. You may also link to my website of 1980s reviews and learn more about my book on Frankenstein and my graphic novel, ROTTEN.

The second goal is to keep a daily record of films watched, annotated with brisk, brief comments. It's a slightly more advanced version of the movie list I kept, in Flair pen, thumbtacked next to my bed when I was twelve.

Pages

Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, 2012). The opening sequences almost feel like a normal movie, although things movie in a distinctly Kiarostamiesque mode after that. On first blush I wasn’t as enchanted as I was with Certified Copy, but the thing does grow on you, despite the puzzlingly abrupt ending. And a late-in-the-action appearance by a heretofore unseen next-door neighbor creates a small masterpiece in the bigger picture. (full review 3/15)

The Gatekeepers (Dror Moreh, 2012). The Oscar-nominated documentary about the Israeli secret service. To which any fervent but open-eyed supporter of Israel’s right to exist can only say, Oh hell. (full review 3/15)

At What a Feeling!, the Eighties reviews continue with Leonard Nimoy’s The Good Mother, a forgotten drama with Diane Keaton and Liam Neeson. There’s a theme developing, see.